The present invention is directed to a data processing system to index, search, and present information about defined, “fuzzy” concepts across language, chemical and product identity, composition, biological classification, and legal reference. In global commerce today, a decision often requires information that the user can most easily describe as a concept term or combination of terms, especially in technical areas, for example, regulatory compliance with product safety requirements for foodstuffs and chemicals. For example, the user may need to know all the requirements applicable to labeling of a product, or restrictions on health and nutritional claims for additives to a foodstuff. The database system of the present invention permits the use of a combination of concepts—labeling, health claims, nutritional claims—across linguistic, scientific, and legal usages. The benefit is thus for the user to be able to search for concepts in a defined way across any language or means of reference. Importantly, the definition of the concepts used in the database is accepted as a standard by the user(s) of the database system. Such standardization of definition then permits one user to pass the results of a search to another user with common meaning. In addition it permits value-added services, such as the capability to provide news services about changes in worldwide regulation of health claims, i.e., changes in information applicable to the concept.
Although the use of a general database including semantic relationships is well known in prior art, the database system of the present invention discloses a method to index, search, and present information, which is novel. The invention defines the concepts in a manner intended to provide a standard usage among users. It applies across language and scientific nomenclature, and can be used in important global business problems where fuzzy questions are essential to decision-making, for example, in the regulation of food and product safety.
The invention allows a much more precise means of defining the information set necessary to a decision. To be able to retrieve a clustered set of information, for example in an Internet search, through the use of such conceptual terms provides an extremely rapid way to search for and receive information within highly defined technical areas. In addition it permits information about changes relative to defined conceptual terms to be searched and presented. Further, it permits expert rules to control actions based on the use of the database system as disclosed in the invention.
For instance, a compliance manager might want information about labeling requirements for sodium chromate. Labeling requirements may be considered a conceptual term—“label”—that might include literal translations, such as étiquette in French or {hacek over (s)}títek in Czech, but labeling might also be associated with legal citations, such as 21 CFR 1910.1200 or Council Directive 67/548 in the European Union. “Sodium chromate” can also be considered as a conceptual term for a chemical substance that encompasses translations: Chromate de sodium, Natriumchromat, synonyms, identifiers, as well as broad chemical groups of which sodium chromate is a member, such as Acido crómico y cromatos and Chrom (VI)-verbindungen, and Hexavalent Chromium Compounds. An embodiment of the invention would permit the user to search for the combination of conceptual terms and receive hyperlinks to relevant documents in the Intenet that would present a global view of labeling requirements for sodium chromate. The present invention allows information about these concepts to be indexed, searched, and presented in a way that provides a comprehensive approach for the user than the State of the Art.
In another example, a beverage manufacturer might be interested in information about requirements for thresholds for “contaminants” in “100% fruit juice”. “Contaminants” as a concept may include nested sub-concepts such as “dioxins”, “PCB's”, “heavy metals”, “microbiological contaminants”, “pesticide residures”, etc. Each of these concepts can have members that cross language, synonymous references, legal citation, or other technical identification. “100% fruit juice” may be considered as a set of fruits, orange, lime, cranberry, which themselves have linguistic, synonymous and other technical identification.